A 2-day event was held at the N. Louros Conference Center, MITERA Hospital, on February 23 and 24, 2018. The event was organized by the Cytology Lab doctors and was supported by the Hellenic Society of Cytology.
On the first day, the invited speakers included Mr A. C. Lazaris, Professor of Anatomic Pathology at the University of Athens, who talked about the values in life, reminding everyone that doctors primarily serve a humanitarian science. Next up, Mr T.N. Sergentanis, academic fellow of Epidemiology, focused on the key molecular paths in cancer epidemiology and made it absolutely clear that cytologists need to approach molecular biology issues. His speech was complemented by Ms F. Stavridou, who talked about general oncology topics. Ms M. Kalfa, cytologist and mental health advisor, raised psychological issues and medico-philosophical conundrums as to the diagnosis of malignant diseases and the constructive communication between patients and diagnosticians. The film Metaxa: Listening to the Time by director S. Psyllakis was then screened.
On the second day, the presentations focused on clearly cytological issues, such as pancreatic and liver malignancies (C. Sallas), head and neck malignancies associated with HPV infection (A. Kapoulas), pediatric cytology (V. Kyriakidou), and salivary gland malignancies (E. Klapsinos). Other topics included cases involving fluids (E. Klapsinos) and the thyroid (C. Sallas, A. Kapoulas).
The aim of the 2-day event was to discuss general issues associated with cytology and to present a detailed analysis of certain topics, so as to offer well-rounded knowledge to cytologists and doctors of related specialties.